So this weekend was both a great brew day an opportunity to pass the brewing torch (kind of I guess). I was lucky enough to get a helping hand from friend of CNYBrew Jess who wanted to witness all-grain brewing in action. I say it’s passing the torch because 4 or 5 years ago I went to Pete’s house and witnessed my first all-grain brew. It reminded me of how crazy the process sounds compared to when you actually see it in action.

Anyway, this weekend I started at about 1pm after one of my football games. This was a 10 gallon brew of oatmeal stout that would make Wilford Brimley proud. This was another in the line of my “simple brews” where I’ve tried to scale down the complexity of my recipe’s with hope of letting the style shine through and decide what beers I really like.

Now with this beer, I started out with a 21bix first running (1.088), 16 brix (1.066) after the first sparge and 11 brix (1.045) in the last running. The pre-boil gravity was 1.063 and after a 1 hr boil, the OG was 1.071, compared to the estimated 1.064. I added two table spoons of gypsum to the mash with hopes of getting the water treated to be a little more like that water in Dublin.

At the end of the day, the wort looked and smelled great. I have high hopes for this brew. Lets see how everything turns out in the end. On another note, I have to say that I really enjoy the day brewing over the morning brewing we usually do. I got to drink a few beers and had some neighbors stop by.

It was great to have Jess out there to participate in a brew day and if anyone wants to stop by, feel free to email me at travis@cnybrew.com or hit me up on twitter @cnybrew.

Travis,
I was at your Oktoberfest a couple of weekends ago – I was the guy pestering you about your brewing set up. Thanks for showing me around…and for all the homebrew.
Glad to hear your brew day went well. I like the idea of simplifying the recipe and am going to try to work out a very simple and clean Pale Ale recipe sometime soon using some of this years homegrown Cascade.
I’m brewing up an Imperial Amber Ale tomorrow…hopefully all goes well for me too.
I’d love to stop by on one of your future brew days.
Take care.

Jeremy – There is one thing that I never mind showing people – my brew stuff. Glad you enjoyed the party. I’ll be brewing in November (I’m thinking the 14th maybe) and you’re welcome to join me. Are you all-grain brewing this weekend? I hope it goes well.

I brewed up the Imp Amber on Saturday. It went pretty well. This is the 4th All Grain batch I’ve done and I’m still having some trouble with my efficiency. I ended up right around 70% with 1.075 – but this was close enough to my target of 1.077. It seems though on most forums that others are getting at least 75% with a batch sparge but usually higher.
The color was also more copper than amber but I’m not worried about that.
Do you crush your own grain or have it done at EJ’s??

As long as you find your stride with efficiency, don’t worry about the number. A little variation shouldn’t hurt things too much (that’s personal opinion, I am sure there are plenty of people that would differ). Funny you should mention the EJ Wren thing, last time I was in there, Ed mentioned that his grain crusher is going bad and he has had to run things through twice. I would recommend that you make sure he does that if you have him crush for you. I’ve always used him. Grain crushing is messy and a good grain mill is way more than I want to spend. Save me one of those brews to try out and we’ll do dinner or something! Travis

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